Panthers inch toward another state basketball playoff berth

JOE MIEGOC

Sunday

Feb 27, 2011 at 12:01 AMFeb 27, 2011 at 1:41 AM

Tynell Fortune scored 19 points, top-seeded Pocono West made its free throws in the fourth quarter and the Panthers came out with a 56-53 victory over No. 9 Pocono Mountain East in the quarterfinals of the D-11 Class AAAA playoffs at East Stroudsburg South on Saturday.

EAST STROUDSBURG — Pocono Mountain West proved it is the best team in the Poconos. Now the Panthers get a shot to show District 11 what they have.

Tynell Fortune scored 19 points, top-seeded Pocono West made its free throws in the fourth quarter and the Panthers came out with a 56-53 victory over No. 9 Pocono Mountain East in the quarterfinals of the D-11 Class AAAA playoffs at East Stroudsburg South on Saturday.

The Panthers (21-4), who beat the Cardinals for a third time in four meetings and a third straight time, move on to face No. 4 Allen, 48-36 winners over No. 5 Easton in another quarterfinal Saturday, in the semifinals at 7:30 p.m. at Parkland on Wednesday. A victory there would guarantee Pocono West a spot in the PIAA playoffs for the second time in four years.

"Not many teams get this opportunity," PM West coach Brad Pensyl said. "We're getting the opportunity to move on and who knows, if we win one we're in the state playoffs and if we win two we're district champs."

To get that shot the Panthers had to go through the Cardinals (17-9) again.

PM West had won the last two meetings, including last Friday's Mountain Valley Conference title game at East Stroudsburg University. Like the first three, this one went down to the wire with the Panthers out front for much of the second half.

Pocono East led 24-21 at halftime despite leading scorer Kamall Richards stationed on the bench for the final 7:21 of the second quarter with three fouls. The Panthers came out of the locker room with a purpose, running off a 13-2 run to gain a 36-28 lead with 2:15 left in the third.

"We made some adjustments at halftime and what we tried to do to them defensively obviously worked," said Pensyl, whose Panthers held East to just seven points in the third quarter. "And then we got that run."

It was some off-the-court practice that got the Panthers even more charged for a game with plenty of emotion.

Pocono West read the comments East coach Patrick Heaton made when he promised the Morning Call that he'd be seeing them next week at the district semifinals. The Panthers took that to heart.

"The difference was the comments that their coach made," Fortune said. "It fired us up and it made us even more ready to play."

It was the Panthers' play in the fourth quarter that made the biggest difference.

Pocono West fought off every Cardinals' charge, hit 10-of-18 at the line and were able to break East's press on numerous occasions to get easy buckets.

"(Pocono East) is very aggressive and once we got in the double bonus we were going to do what we do very well which is spread them out and attack them," Pensyl said. "If they want to foul and put us on the line, we'll have to make them and we did."

And now the Panthers get a shot at the title they've coveted since Day 1.

"I'm looking forward to it and I'm trying to get this district championship to Pocono Mountain West," Fortune said.